mechanical keyboard proponents be talking about longevity... I never ever had a membrane keyboard fail on me. they're indestructible. but I had a mechanical keyboard with kailh red switches fail on me, and I had to constantly spray it with wd-40 to make it work again. ugh.

maybe we could market an IA keyboard that knows what you will type even before you type it

Never used kailih so no experience with them at all, but my gateron browns are durable AF, using that keeb for 4+ years every day now and no issues whatsoever.

Yesterday I ordered NuPhy Air60 v2 with Wisteria switches, will see how that one goes in comparison to my AnnePro2

And yeah membrane are like eternal keebs, you can consider it as a cockroach keeb. I still have totally cheap one that I payed around 10 bucks 25-ish years ago(this was cheap even then), I even washed it few times (disasembled and washed non electrical parts, I am not an idiot despite my nickname here).

Still works like a charm.

Or it might be that it works because I really care about things I have in general, they are pretty much all in a good shape except my first DS, but that's another story.

@devJs I'll either buy a membrane keyboard, or a hall effect keychron. hall effect switches are supposed to be eternal

I've never had a keyboard fail on me, period

but I do have tiny dainty fingers. saw my roommate ruin keyboards. no clue how. he had no issue ruining all sorts of other things. breaking doors, walls, chairs, etc

you're making me want these membranes cuz I assume things won't get stuck between my keys

😭

hate cleaning keyboards. takes forever

@kiki Why not scissor switches like they use on mac?

I use mechanical, none of which have failed on me, but my first one was some fancy steelseries one

I've had membranes fail on me but normally, it's the rest of the keyboard that breaks first, used to type on my laptop with a wireless keyboard

@BordedDev scissors, umm is that so called butterfly switches? Those were horrible!

I do use fancy keebs but don't know much about them.

Just realised I wrote laptop, I meant lap. On my legs

I've had some keyboards fail on me. A very flat one. Think they used scissor switches. A single membrane one failed (one key didn't pop back up). But that for sure was a one off.

Another failure was just by yuk caps. Was with some sort of rubber feel and that turns to sticky goo (it's a common coating, now I know you can fix it with alcohol but it will be shiny textureless).

I've had a single switch failure on mech keyboard within two years. Got a replacement under warranty was actually an upgrade. This was in 2018. Still use this as my main board almost daily.
My first mech keyboard I keep at the office and have that since 2016 (bought it for the office when I had to be there every day).
Both are cherry MX brown non hot swappable. But the one at home is vastly better (nicer build, less key wobble).

It's worth the investment for the feel to me, they last long and can get cleaned better.
I do agree that other than cheap plastic implementation membrane keyboards can last very long.

@BordedDev @hjk101 switches can be either membrane or mechanical. Scissor switches and butterfly switches are both membrane. It’s the membrane that fails, not the scissor mechanism.

There is no point in talking about butterfly switches anymore because no external keyboard has them.

@jestdotty the people that break things are the people you ask to test products to how they can be broken.

They told me they had a guy where I work that could mess up anything. So they would have him "test" things. He would find any way if it was possible to mess up an interface or hardware. He got really pissed when he found out that is whey they have him "test" things. lol

I had a guy like that to test my software interfaces. I was actually fascinated about how he would use the software. Doing shit I never thought a user would do.

I remember some of the keyboards from the 90s. Some of them were so stout you had to register them as deadly weapons. Just heavy chunks of metal.

@Demolishun wow, do you remember the models? or at least vendors who made them, brand names

@kiki probably IBM.

@kiki you are correct that it's membrane but it's a specific type of membrane that in my experience has gets broken more by an order of magnitude. Usually user (or cat) mishandling. Trying to clean debris underneath.

Most of the time it's the key cap part that clicks on that breaks. The scissor plastic itself can what be bend beyond function too.

My experience is based on being a systems admin that needed to maintain all the companies hardware. Just about all keyboard issues where scissor related issues and not the membrane.

Apple != Only keyboard manufacturer. They are still made and used

@hjk101 name one company that makes butterfly keyboards that isn't apple

even apple doesn't make them anymore

@kiki ??? Where did the dreaded butterfly switch come in the conversation?

Perhaps Dell is still copying Apple mistakes. They have a capacitive top row on the XPS. So would not surprise me if they use butterfly too. But I've never claimed the use of such a thing.

also, for the price of one entry-tier mechanical keyboard, you can have 10 top-tier rubber-dome keyboards die on you.

and i never had one die from natural causes - only from external events that would've killed a mechanical one just the same.

@tosensei fair, but at that price point all of those ten will be made by slave kids, and that would be TEN of that non-repairable things that will become landfill. Also, they won’t feel nice to type on.
I’d rather buy one good keyboard once and use it forever, repairing it as necessary

@kiki with the current system, even the high-priced mechanical keyboard is 100% slave-kid-labour.

also: "feeling nice to type on" is very subjective. i have never once typed on a mechanical keyboard that i would prefer to even the cheapest, crappiest rubber-dome(*) keyboard.

(*) there are some special cases like "completely silicone-encased keyboard for waterproofness", or rollable keyboards, and other gimmicky stuff. those are pure garbage in terms of typing, but "good typing" is not their goal.

@tosensei no. There are European/American keyboard makers that are so niche that they can afford proper labor conditions. Mechanical keyboard is a pretty niche thing in general, so even if you’re just a guy that has a cnc machine, you can be in this business.

@tosensei also, China is VERY big. There are all kinds of factories with all kinds of labor conditions. Ask Fairphone about how they make sure their labor conditions are fair
Made in China doesn’t necessarily mean made unethically